This invention relates to a multi-color image recording apparatus which can remove a recorded-on roll medium without unrolling, which is suitable as a color image recording apparatus for recording a color image on conveyed recording roll paper, by use of a color image-forming/processing station which includes a recording head.
An exampe of such a conventional color image recording apparatus is an electrostatic color plotter. In such as electrostatic color plotter, a recording roll medium is reciprocated in relation to an image-forming/processing station comprising a plurality of developing units or the like, each using a developer for a different color and a single recording head, and multi-color images are superposed and formed on a single surface portion of the recording medium.
For example, FIG. 1 shows the arrangement of an electrostatic color plotter reported on page 101 of Articles of 1st Non-Impact Printing Technique Symposium sponsored by the Electrophotographic Academy of Japan and available as Model ECP-42 from Versatech Inc., U.S.A. Referring to FIG. 1, electrostatic recording roll medium (to be referred to as recording paper hereinafter) 1 is wound on feed roller 2. The plotter further comprises write head 3 with a servo mechanism, rear electrode 4 of head 3, developing heads 5 to 8 using liquid developers for different colors, paper feed roller 9 with a servo mechanism, take-up roller 10 for taking up recorded-on paper 1, memory boards 11 to 14 for storing recording data, and controller 15 for supplying image data to head 3 and controlling the operation of the overall apparatus.
When image recording is performed, recording paper 1 is supplied from feed roller 1 to take-up roller 10, via the processing station including the write and developing heads and paper feed roller 9. Recording is performed while paper 1 is conveyed to the right in FIG. 1. One of developing heads 5 to 8 is moved upward and set at an operative position, and an electrostatic latent image of a predetermined image is formed by write head 3 and developed by the developing head which has been moved upward. The supplying of recording paper 1 continues until the recording of an image in one color is completed, and is then taken up to a start position. Recording in the next color is performed similarly by moving upward a developing head of another color. When recording in three primary colors or four colors including the three primary colors plus black is completed, recorded-on paper 1 is taken up by take-up roller 10, and the next image is recorded on the immediately following portion of paper 1.
In the above conventional apparatus, the recorded-on paper is sequentially wound on take-up roller 10. When a portion of recorded-on paper is to be removed, recording paper 1 must be cut at a portion between paper feed roller 9 and take-up roller 10, and recorded-on paper 1 must be unrolled from roller 10 and cut, in units of images, by use of a manual operation. However, since a plotter often outputs a large number of images, it is not easy to unroll and cut paper 1 by way of a manual operation. The apparatus having the arrangement as shown in FIG. 1 is thus very inconvenient to use when a portion of recorded-on paper is to be removed or cut. When a small number of images is recorded, although recorded-on paper 1 can be cut and removed after every recording, non-recorded-on paper 1 must be rewound on roller 10 after cutting. This entails a cumbersome operation and thus causes considerable inconvenience, since a large amount of recording paper is unnecessarily consumed without having been recorded on.